Chris Hayes apologizes for 'heroes' remark

5/29/12 6:15 AM EDT

MSNBC host Chris Hayes apologized on Monday for saying he felt “uncomfortable” calling fallen soldiers “heroes," a remark that set off a firestorm of criticism over the Memorial Day weekend.

"On Sunday, in discussing the uses of the word "hero" to describe those members of the armed forces who have given their lives, I don't think I lived up to the standards of rigor, respect and empathy for those affected by the issues we discuss that I've set for myself," Hayes wrote on MSNBC.com. "I am deeply sorry for that."

Critics at right-wing sites like Breitbart.com and Newsbusters had criticized Hayes heavily for his comments, suggesting they were disrespectful of America's men and women in uniform.

“Why do I feel so uncomfortable about the word ‘hero’?” Hayes had said on Sunday's edition of Up With Chris Hayes. “I feel uncomfortable about the word hero because it seems to me that it is so rhetorically proximate to justifications for more war. I don’t want to obviously desecrate or disrespect the memory of anyone that’s fallen, and obviously there are individual circumstances in which there is genuine, tremendous heroism -- hail of gunfire, rescuing fellow soldiers and things like that. But it seems to me that we marshal this word in a way that is problematic. But maybe I’m wrong about that."

In his statement yesterday, Hayes also expressed regret for having reinforced and confirmed the stereotype of the "removed pundit."

"[I]n seeking to discuss the civilian-military divide and the social distance between those who fight and those who don't, I ended up reinforcing it, conforming to a stereotype of a removed pundit whose views are not anchored in the very real and very wrenching experience of this long decade of war," he wrote. "And for that I am truly sorry."